The woes of a diesel household

[dobbo]

Due to the ever increasing price of dino diesel and the fact we are now a houshold of 2 diesel vehicles I have been considering running my 4BD1 on a blend of dino and a top up of most likely Aldi blend Canola. What ratio should I use to avoid waxing? I was thinking of a maximum 50% mix or can I be more adventurous.

The most frustrating part of this whole diesel price issue is there is a Bio Diesel plant in the Hunter but they don't sell to the common person.

I would consider running Bio in any ratio in the County but it's not available at any of the servo's in my area, I have not got the available means nor the space to brew my own.

What modifications do I need to do to the County to run SVO?

[dobbo]

http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/retail/diesel/index.htm

http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/retail/diesel/index.htm

as you can see it doesn't look like it's about to go down, when I first got my D2 it cost me $90 to fill it.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

How much is it to buy canola oil per litre? How much do you estimate the converted oil costing when it's ready to put in the car?

[Cap]

From what I read, wasnt the mix 20% oil, 80% Dino? (also called B20).

And I also read that there are some mods to do if you go with SVO, but no mods with bio.

Im just a newbe when it comes to this stuff, so could be wrong.

[dobbo]

[QUOTE=Captain_Rightfoot;754950]How much is it to buy canola oil per litre?[QUOTE]

Less than the every increasing pump price for normal Diesel



[QUOTE=Captain_Rightfoot;754950]How much do you estimate the converted oil costing when it's ready to put in the car?[QUOTE]


Regardless whether I do go ahead with this, still weighing up the pro's and cons at the moment, I intend to mount aux tanks under the county. (it won't cost much more for an electric fuel pump, switch, solonoid and an extra filter). This idea is to run the car to normal diesel till it reaches operating temperature then switch over to the Canola oil tank. Reverse for cool down.

My County is an old school 4BD1. In theory the old injectors and pump should be more than capable of running straight Canola oil once it reaches normal temperature.

[aussiefx]

I must admit I haven't done it yet as I'm only picking up my Disco next week but I am investigating the Vegiecars Vegie Cars - VegieCars, Chip Oil, Veggie Cars, WVO, SVO, UCO, Veggie Oil, Carbon Cops, Biodiesel, Biofuel (http://www.vegiecars.com) "quick convert" system as I have secured a plentiful supply of free (even better than the Aldi price :D ) waste vegie oil from the local fish and chip shop. I intend to post my experiences with this "experiment" once I get started.

I don't work or promote Vegie cars but they do have a handy booklet you can get for AU$20 that has heaps of info on how to do it.

Cheers,
Andy

[EchiDna]

geez no disrespect to aussiefx, but there is tons of info online for free...

biggest and best aussie forum on the issue:
Bio Fuels Forums - Powered by vBulletin (http://www.biofuelsforum.com/)

dobbo, you want to look under the SVO section... to be honest, biodiesel is the express reason I bought my 4BD1!

[Bigbjorn]

The cost of running on distillate is still much less than running similar vehicles on motor spirit. My County-Isuzu averages 10.1 l/100ks. and a mate has a V8 Discovery which averages 18.8 l/100ks. The Discovery costs about $90 more per 1000 ks.

[isuzurover]

Dobbo - I know someone who successfully ran his 4BD1T rangie on filtered chip fat for a few years.

basically - 2nd tank with heating lines (filled with 100% filtered fat/oil), and the heating lines follow the fuel line all the way to the IP. Start on diesel, wait till the engine is completely warmed up, then change over. Same before you shut down to flush the lines.

You would need to heat the oil to about 90-100oC to get the same viscosity as diesel at 20-30oC. However the stock thermostat is 77oC. Having a slightly higher viscosity fuel feems to have no major problems apart from carbon trumpets forming on the injector nozzles - which should be removed by regular use of a good quality injector cleaner.

Some people run a 1-tank system by blending fat/oil with diesel/kero/petrol. However no guarantee that your engine will run well and/or last...

[aussiefx]

EchiDna, thanks for the link. I hadn't found that one in all my searching for info on using WVO. Still, $20 won't break the bank :)

Cheers,
Andy